Westworld isn’t a cheap show to produce. The brass at HBO believed in the show to bet as big as they did on creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy‘s reimagining of Michael Crichton‘s 1973 film. But the good news is that it looks like that bet is already beginning to pay off. Not only did the pilot, which cost $25 million, get HBO their highest rated premiere since True Detective, it’s also already found an enthusiastic audience.

After a long and rocky production process, Westworld finally made its long-awaited debut on HBO last night… and from here, it looks like it was worth the wait. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy‘s sci-fi drama got off to an intriguing start with its series premiere, setting up an expansive and intricate universe filled with fascinating characters who promise to explore some big questions about technology and humanity. So, what’s next? Where do we go from here?

HBO’s Westworld season 1 trailer provides some clues without giving away too many of the upcoming twists and turns.Read More »

Westworld creators Jonathan Nolanand Lisa Joy are hardly beholden to Michael Crichton‘s original 1973 film. With their reimagining, they’re telling a different story in the same location. Crichton’s movie is more of a springboard for this sci-fi drama, which deals with identity, consciousness, the relationship between man and maker, and more. Joy, Nolan (who directed the pilot), and all involved let their imaginations run wild with Westworld, which presents a future where humans can pay $40,000 to live the day in the life of a cowboy or outlaw.

The series is executive produced by filmmaker J.J. Abrams, who’s been wanting to remake Westworld for over 20 years. A few years ago, Abrams brought the project to Nolan and Joy, and the two couldn’t resist the opportunity. They clearly set their sights high, because HBO’s new series is every bit as ambitious as it looks. Nolan and Joy’s take on Westworld places more emphasis on the hosts, the artificial intelligence in the park. By shifting the focus to the A.I., Nolan and Joy raise all sorts of new questions regarding Westworld and its employees and visitors, and the two writers and producers were kind enough to discuss some of those questions with us recently.

The Westworld pilot is excellent. Co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy gradually introduce their high-tech theme park, which is home to all sorts of thrills and horrors. Most of the exposition expected from a pilot doesn’t come into play until episode two, and by that point, you’re completely invested in the world and characters, so every piece of information goes down smoothly. At the start of Westworld, the worldbuilding is subtle and transfixing, but the drama is every bit as captivating.

There’s so much the pilot gets right. Before it airs next month, HBO has released more materials for their sci-fi series, including a Westworld featurette, some TV spots, and a synopsis for the pilot that teases the future of the season one.

The marketing for HBO’s Westworld continues to impress. The footage we’ve seen so far has promised an ambitious, fun and thoughtful piece of science-fiction, and fingers crossed that’s what we’ll see next month when the series finally premieres on HBO. Another trailer – this time showing more of the world from Dolores Abernathy’s (Evan Rachel Wood) perspective – has been released for Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy‘s loose remake of Michael Crichton‘s film.

Earlier this year HBO shut down production on Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy‘s television remake of Michael Crichton‘s Westworld. When the J.J. Abrams-produced series was greenlit, HBO was hoping to premiere the series in 2015. Whatever the real reason was for the delay, Abrams was correct when he said it’s never a bad move not to rush to a premiere date. They took their time with the series, and according to actor James Marsden, it was somewhat because they were plotting future seasons. In fact, if all goes according to plan, we’ll get a total of five Westworld seasons.

There’s no shortage of film to TV adaptations in the works. Rarely do these television remakes offer fresh and exciting new visions, but that doesn’t look to be the case with HBO’s Westworld, which was delayed and ran into some production troubles. The series seems to pick up Michael Crichton‘s original idea and just runs as far as possible with it. Jonathan Nolan, J.J. Abrams, and Lisa Joy‘s reimagining is expanding on the themes, ideas, and world perhaps not fully explored in Crichton’s thin but charming sci-fi film.

We recently saw another stellar trailer for the HBO series. Below, you can now see the Westworld poster.

After a delay and some production issues, Jonathan Nolan, J.J. Abrams, and Lisa Joy‘s reimagining of Michael Crichton‘s 1973 film Westworld is finally coming to HBO. The show was originally scheduled to arrive in 2015, but Nolan and all involved were allotted more time to get the show back on track. The latest trailer for the series — which is part western, part science-fiction — promised an ambitious, large-scale production.

If you still want to see more from the show, then check out some new Westworld images below.

HBO presented a panel for Westworld to the Television Critics Association where producers/writers Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy spoke to reporters along with cast members Jeffrey Wright, Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Ed Harris. We sat down to discuss the show based on the Michael Crichton screenplay of the same name from 1973 with Jonah Nolan where he revealed the one thing he was allowed to do on the HBO Westworld remake that his filmmaker brother Christopher Nolan never let him do.

In addition, Nolan and Lisa Joy discussed the rules of Westworld, the themes brought about by today’s advanced technology in the story, the guest stars we can expect and much more. Plus, we learn about a very intriguing character played by Ed Harris, straight from the actor himself. Read More »

It’s been almost two decades since Warren Beatty has directed a film. He last starred in the disastrous Town & Country, but his last directorial effort was 1998’s Bulworth, a hilarious and somewhat overlooked film. The director is famously known for taking his time with each project, but this is his longest hiatus yet. However, we’ll soon see Beatty return to the big screen this November when the actor, director, producer, and writer’s newest picture, now titled Rules Don’t Apply, finally opens in theaters.